"Other" storage won't shrink

[Charline]

Hi there,

For months my Mac has been telling me my storage is full. I do have everything on my external hard drive now, and the other storage keeps eating up all the space I seem to free up. I took all the basic steps I could find online (Disk Utility, deleting library, browser caches, running cleaner apps lile OnyX, etc.) but it does not get any better. Can anyone help me?

 

[honestone]

A couple of things will help:

1. What exact Mac Model do you have?

2. What exact Mac OS are you using?

3. Most importantly, are you making any backups to the external drive (or maybe another one)? If so, what software are you using for that?

If you are making a backup, and as long as the OS is Lion or above, you'll be able to boot Disk Utility "externally" to try and "fix" your internal drive (hopefully the drive is not "on its last legs"). The "ultimate" step would be to 1) have Disk Utility Erase and Format your internal drive (again assuming its OK), and 2) do a clean, "virgin" installation of the Mac OS you are using. Now, if you need anything recovered from your backup (besides the OS), that might or might not be without problems. Once you complete the OS installation, you'll be offered the opportunity, via Migration Assistant, to "migrate"/copy stuff from your backup. But it's unknown how "clean" the backup is. And if you've been using Time Machine for the backups, and you let it run frequently, who knows which backup is good?

And of course all that assumes that your internal drive is OK.

 

[honestone]

I guess the other thing to look at is Activity Monitor. That will show you how much CPU, Memory, etc. is being used by programs, processes, etc.